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Topic: What are the rigs being used for QRP? (Read 9463 times)

I am curious what the rigs are, commercial, homebrew, kits or vintage. I'll start with mine. I use a 3 transistor homebuilt I got from some of Lew McCoy's articles about 30 years ago. I upgraded it to a NTE128 final . Today I added absorbtion loop modulation which gives me AM phone if I like with no active components. I also have and use three vintage homebuilt rigs with tubes. One is a TNT, One a MOPA and one a 4 tube transceiver, all under 5 watts. The mopa is also a transceiver. All have AM capability as well a CW. What is on your shelf?Don Ve3LYX

I run ATS-3B 6 band digital transceiver 5 w fits in an altoids tin 5 Oz than I have the H1-B1 from youkits 4 bander 5w the best receiver I have heard .also my ic-756 pro2 goes down to 1 watt QRP is the most fun you can have with your close on. HI HI

I have a few QRP rigs but the best is my KX3 with a small ackumulator and solarpanels with regulator. For antenna I am using the old original VS1AA antenna (Windom like) since the ATU are capable of matching it on all the bands the antenna is capable of. I use two radials for each band and have had great fun with it.

I have both a full size VS1AA and a half size for different needs and both works very nice with the ATU. The antennas is light weight since I don't need any coaxial cable so it's great for backpacking.

I am mostly operating CW but KX3 really shines on SSB if the TX audio equalizer it set correct by enhancing high tones and suppressing low tones. I have very aggressive settings for the EQ and with the excellent compressor I get real good signal reports from overseas.

Shack - FT450D ( I know it can QRO but is always set at 5W. Good for CW with good (IMHO) digital signal processing, plays nicely with Ham Radio Deluxe v5 (The last free version) . The rig control via HRD is fast and convenient, saves wear & tear on the rig controls!! I don't use the fairly limited range internal ATU much, prefer to use external matchbox. Internal keyer is fine but not used because I'm determined to get my straight key work up to standard first.

Portable - FT817ND with 300Hz cw filter, which is a revelation. It transforms the rig and it really helps protect my ears from excessive white noise/ general racket. (I'm fairly deaf and very interested in preserving what remaining hearing I have.) Can wind the power right down.

Guerilla QRP - Youkits HB-1B 4 bander. An amazing little rig for the money. Variable filtration is effective. Only way to control output power I've found so far is to reduce power supply voltage a little. Unfortunately this also reduces audio gain. I switched to a pair of Sennheiser HD219 headphones and their sensitivity compensates nicely for this. If it is a really noisy environment, I switch my hearing aids to 'Loop' and they couple electronically to my phones and background noise is pushed a lot further into the background!!

Various heaps of home brew crud, none of which approaches the rigs above. Also becoming much too quiet!!

I am trying to use all homebrew equipment, although some of them may be kits or derived from kits. So far I build a BITX20 and rockmite20 (designed the PCB myself). I am trying to go even smaller, now working on a PIXIE for 20 meters.

The keyer, SWR meter and antenna tuner are also homemade. Homebrew combined with QRP makes maximum fun! Here is a picture of my rockmite...

Both my rigs are QRP capable down to 100 milliwatts - K2 and KX3. I had a KX1 and an FT817. My first ever long distance contact at over 2000 miles per watt is with the FT817 to Australia on phone. The heavy lifting was done at the other end by VK6LC on his 20m beam. My most recent is to Guam on the KX3 with an inverted L cut for 80m with 500 feet of radials and my most miles per watt is to Indiana at 100 milliwatts for 5370 miles per watt on a ZS6BKW antenna.